1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a photomask and a thin film transistor fabricated using the photomask.
2. Description of the Related Art
Liquid crystal displays (“LCDs”) are one of the most widely used types of flat panel displays. Generally, an LCD includes a pair of substrates having electrodes disposed thereon and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the substrates. In the typical LCD, thin-film transistors (“TFTs”) disposed on the substrates are driven to apply voltages to the electrodes. Accordingly, orientations of liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer are rearranged, and thus the amount of light that passes through the liquid crystal layer may be adjusted according to the orientations of the liquid crystal molecules.
A source electrode, a drain electrode and a channel region of a TFT may be formed by stacking a conductive layer and photoresist on a substrate, forming a source electrode pattern, a drain electrode pattern and a channel region pattern on the photoresist using a photomask and then etching the conductive layer using the photoresist pattern.
As LCDs become slimmer, a linewidth of a channel region of a TFT is increasingly reduced. Thus, the occurrence of even a small processing deviation during fabrication of a TFT may result in an increased number of channel open defects or channel short defects.
These defects have a serious negative effect on the operation of a TFT, thereby adversely affecting the overall reliability of a display device utilizing the same, whether the display device is an LCD, an organic light emitting diode (“OLED”) display, plasma display or other type of display device.